This blog is a plática, a conversation, in both Spanish and English about being a Boricua, a Puerto Rican, en la luna, or on the moon (or on its metaphorical facsimile: the United States). The phrase is the title of a poem by Juan Antonio Corretjer, which was made into a song by Roy Brown and updated by Puerto Rican Spanish-rock group Fiel a la Vega.

Monday, July 10, 2017

After a very long absence from these pages, and now that I'm on my post-tenure (thrice-postponed) sabbatical year, I'm going to make more of an effort to update here since this is as close to a journal as I can keep.

July 2017 started with a bang, not the least of which is that my younger brother moved in with us after getting a job at a high school in Columbus. I'm thrilled to have him here and looking forward to his youngest son joining us in August to start college at Capital U.

Big, big changes all around. My husband and I, meanwhile, celebrated 23 years by going to the Inn and Spa at Cedar Falls, a favorite, and we stayed one night at a cottage and it was magical. It's the best going away (at least for me) because it's so close to home.

We visited the newly opened Whispering Cave trail, which was challenging for me, but beautiful, and then we had a wonderful dinner and a great breakfast and then walked around the premises before heading back home.

At home, Darwin is pretty much the same cat-in-a-box he's ever been, and Lizzy is her own sleepy self once she's tired herself out chasing squirrels in the backyard.

This past weekend we took Lizzy to the Three Creeks Metro Park for a walk and then stopped at a farmer's market to get fresh locally grown corn, which is a summer treat.

Meanwhile, today I started in my new sabbatical-year office, which is starting to look like my space, and where I look forward to working on my scholarship.

Ay, ay, ay, that my grandfather was the slave
is my sorrow, is my sorrow.
Had he been the master,
it would be my shame;
because among men,
as among nations,
if being the slave is having no rights,
being the master is having no conscience.